Researchers Create Sodium Battery In Industry Standard "18650" Format (gizmag.com)

Zothecula sends word that a French team has developed a battery using sodium ions in the usual "18650" format. Gizmag reports: "A team of researchers in France has taken a major step towards powering our devices with rechargeable batteries based on an element that is far more abundant and cheaper than lithium. For the first time ever, a battery has been developed using sodium ions in the industry standard "18650" format used in laptop batteries, LED flashlights and the Tesla Model S, among other products."

Comments

Sakura Battery

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems like we're getting announcements about revolutionary world changing never seen before astounding new battery designs every day, but nothing ever comes to market.

Maybe it's time to question what the fuck is wrong with the shitty "journalism" that tries and make huge stories out of nothing.

Re:Sakura Battery

[shaitand]

Have you considered it might be time to ask what the fuck is wrong with the fossil fuel giants who buy up any breakthrough energy related technology and vanish it.

Re:Sakura Battery

[Orphis]

The first link in the article is pointing to the CNRS news website, which is part of the organization that made the research, that's a fair one.
The second link paraphrasing the first one doesn't add value though...

Re:Sakura Battery

[Beck_Neard]

Battery factories are huge and expensive. We're talking billions of dollars. I wish I was kidding. An idea could have the potential to be way better and cheaper than Li-ion but still never make it to market because no one wants to be the first to take such a huge risk. That's why in the past several years plenty of incremental improvements to Li-ion have made it to market, but there haven't been any revolutionary new technologies.

That said, if a technology proved clearly superior to Li-ion then people would seriously consider investing in it, but most 'battery breakthroughs' still fall short of Li-ion in some ways. For example, they may not have the same longevity, capacity, or safety factor.

Actually, that's the case here. Sodium batteries have *less* energy capacity than Li-ion, and the expected lifetimes are similar. It's just that they have the potential to be cheaper. But they're never going to be cheaper if no one builds a big factory to make them.

Re:Sakura Battery

[Dereck1701]

While I have no doubt that some of the current heavyweights in the energy market like to buy up and sit on some companies with promising developments I highly doubt that they can keep major advances held down too long. The article notes that lithium-ion batteries were developed in Europe but never commercialized (patents? NIMBYs? Lack of production capacity?), then Asia got a hold of the technology and it exploded onto the market. You may be able to control minor advances in a few markets where corrupt government officials are willing to play ball with you but major advances are going to find a market somewhere no matter what, and those places are more likely to locations where governments haven't wrapped everything up in 12 layers of red tape (patents, copyright, OSHA, etc).

Far more abundant than lithium?

[Rei]

Yeay! Because you know that $7-8/kg for lithium carbonate was really breaking the bank.

Re:Far more abundant than lithium?

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Because if everyone on the planet starts using batteries to store energy in their cars and at home, there won't be enough lithium and the price will go way above $8/kg?

I dunno.

Re:Far more abundant than lithium?

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

But if Sodium is less damaging for the environment, is easier to process to make batteries and is cheaper as a result, it means cheaper electric cars and cheaper energy storage at home.

$5000 electric cars, maybe?

Re:Far more abundant than lithium?

[ShanghaiBill]

$5000 electric cars, maybe?

Unlikely. Lithium is only a small fraction of the cost of lithium batteries, so switching to sodium won't save much, and sodium is much heavier and has lower power density (by mass or volume). A sodium battery may make sense for static applications where neither weight nor power density matter, but electric car batteries will continue to be based on lithium.

Battery Advancements

[Anonymous Coward]

I keep old rechargeable batteries around to disprove the notion that there have been no advancements.

#1 Radio Shack NiCad D size battery from the late 1980's. 1.2V 1200 Mah
#2 Energizer NiMh AA size battery from the late 2000's 1.2V 2600 Mah (up to 1.4v when fully charged)
#2 R/C heli Lipo, volume equivalent to C size from post 2010 3.7V 5000 Mah

You do the math.

Re:Battery Advancements

[nightfire-unique]

Assuming a linear-ish discharge curve over a 70% discharge, 1.44Wh D cell to 18.5Wh (equivalent) C cell is not a 2x capacity increase.

I want battery technology to increase an order of magnitude every year too, ... but come on. We've made enormous strides.

You, yourself, can buy low-resistance, low-self-discharge lithium ion batteries at 250Wh/kg. And they're cheap. Compare that to 30Wh/kg NiCD batteries of 30 years ago.